This is great stuff, but he's making a lot of enemies: Saying the Hawks are a bad basketball team is like saying that living in Beirut would be exciting—true, but not really the whole story. The Hawks are really, really bad. Such a collection of mismatched players has rarely been foisted upon the NBA in recent years, methinks. It is almost as if someone picked the group completely at random. There were balls being bounced off teammates’ faces, passes thrown to no one in particular and, in general, very little coherent basketball at all. At one point, the Hawks actually entered an airball as their shot of choice on three straight possessions. ...Tom Gugliotta has the worst tattoo in the NBA. The barbed wire on the bicep is bad enough to put him in the running; the fact that it is the dreaded “I thought I could get away with not having it complete the circumference of my arm” type puts him over the top. It is like wearing a tie that is not only ugly, but is a clip-on to boot. Ugly is at least forgivable; the clip-on aspect makes it reprehensible.

Yeah, half the NBA is gonna hate him before he's done. On the other hand, that probably won't get in the way of his inevitable career as an insurance/car salesman once the ten day contracts stop coming.

I knew (of) Paul when he was at ISU. He was on a full Academic (not Athletic) scholarship and managed to get a Mechanical Engineering degree (and I think maybe his MBA), so I'm not sure if he has the skills to be an insurance/car salesman. I'm guessing he can find something else to do to make a few bucks once his NBA days are done.

That's impressive. I seriously doubt many scholar-athletes make it to the NBA. Even playing in Russia sounds a lot more interesting than sitting in an office (insurance, sales, engineer, whatever). Of course, as he says many times, he hasn't really been playing: (I use the term loosely; play for/cheer for—same thing)

I sense a future book out of all this. It's an interesting look at a (semi-) pro player's life in the NBA, from the perspective of a never-will-be. It's much better than the bland journals that all the stars put out.

So, where is the problem? I am 27, have no children, no wife, and no serious girlfriend and, while I am no male model, am not going to make anyone’s All-Ugly Team anytime soon. (Incidentally, my version of this year’s team has two members from Minnesota, one from the Milwaukee Bucks, one from the Warriors and one from the Portland Trail Blazers. In the interest of not getting the [crap] kicked out of me, should I actually play in a game against one of these teams, I will keep the exact identities to myself.) I wonder who's on the team.. I'm sure Sam Cassell's in there, but that's about it for me.